


tell me that i'm alright

by manchestereye (orphan_account)



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Awkward Dan Howell, Dan Howell Needs A Hug, Dan Howell and Phil Lester Are Teenagers, Fluff, Gay, Gay Dan Howell, Gay Phil Lester, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, but like very little
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 13:43:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20175244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/manchestereye
Summary: a partner for a project isn't something dan howell really looks forward to, but he's pleasantly surprised by him.





	tell me that i'm alright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [icosmics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/icosmics/gifts).

> i'm actually proud of this uwu
> 
> prompt[ here ](https://dailyau.tumblr.com/post/181491584025/it-seems-were-the-only-two-people-in-this-class)
> 
> icosmics ur my best friend here you go

math wasn’t exactly the easiest thing for dan howell, but he was good enough to be placed in an honors class according to what his previous teacher told him. 

dan didn’t realize exactly how challenging an honors class would be, because if other people can take this class, then so can he. dan didn’t really have the best grade in the class, which was understandable but he still felt like he was disappointing his family and teachers by not performing well enough.

despite all of this, he was able to get the hang of trigonometry, which was apparently the hardest unit of the semester. he was proud of himself for getting mostly correct answers on the past few homework assignments.

when the teacher assigns this project on trigonometry as a substitution for a unit test, the whole class groaned. dan was surprisingly excited for it, because projects were better than tests and it was gonna be an easy project.

unfortunately, it’s a partner project. one, dan’s socially inept which makes it hard for people to want to approach him since he’s so awkward, and two, if no one else knows what the hell they’re doing in this trig unit, then dan’s utterly screwed and he’ll end up getting a bad grade for what his partner isn’t going to contribute.

so he just sits at his desk while everyone else runs around trying to find partners. 

there’s someone walking up to his desk, and dan assumes that it’s just a prick that knows dan is good at this unit, but surprisingly it’s not.

it’s phil lester. they’re in the same grade and dan’s noticed that phil likes video games and anime, which is pretty cool itself, but he also found out that he liked the same music as dan from when he overheard his conversation with someone else at lunch one time. dan’s never actually had the guts to talk to phil, with social anxiety being a thing and with dan being too socially inept to have friends at this school.

“hey, so i actually understand this stuff, and i heard that you’re the only other person who understands this stuff as well, so do you wanna partner up and ruin everyone else’s grades?” phil asks, with a cheery expression and a wide grin on his face.

“yeah, definitely!” dan says, sitting upright in his seat now. phil hands him the outline, and they start looking at it. 

they don’t start right away, because phil gets distracted by the anime stickers on dan’s folder, and they’re talking about it up until the bell rings. phil actually offers dan to sit with him at lunch that day. but dan thinks it’ll be too awkward since they literally just started talking to each other.

-

the next day, they actually work on something. dan plugs the information into his calculator and phil writes it down and draws the diagrams. dan tried drawing the diagrams only to fuck up halfway through and redo the whole thing. 

they finish with ten minutes to spare, so phil babbles to him about other things. dan doesn’t think he’s been this happy ever since he started attending high school.

phil invites dan to have lunch with him and his friends once again, but dan declines. not because he thinks it’s still weird, but because dan has an english paper due at the end of the day that he hasn’t even started yet.

he’s kind of distracted while working on it though, because he keeps thinking of a certain someone from his math class. dan dismisses the feeling though, he thinks it’s just because he finally made a friend in the two and a half years of high school that have already passed.

dan knows it’s not a bad thing to be gay, he’s known that he was gay ever since he was twelve and had a fascination with harry styles and one direction that most boys don’t have at that age. also the fact that he would see girls at school and be completely indifferent towards them. the problem is that he doesn’t know whether phil is gay, and how the school would react if people found out he was gay. he’s already a social outcast for hanging out alone without any friends, and for liking weeb shit. 

he just takes a breath and hopes this doesn’t won’t affect him anymore. he needs to get his grades up, and besides this project ends tomorrow so the friendship might not even last. they’re already done with it, so maybe phil would decide to go help other people instead of sitting around with him. 

_ “yeah, that sounds about right. of course he’ll get tired of the socially inept kid that doesn’t know how to talk to people.” _ dan thinks, bitterly.

-

dan oversleeps his alarm the next morning because he was distracting himself with mario kart. it was already 2 am, and he couldn’t stop thinking about how weird he was, as a junior in high school that literally has no friends. he’s had friends before, but they’ve moved away.

there was this girl, louise, who was really nice to him and the only person his age that he came out to before she moved back to her hometown. there was another girl, fiona, who he met in freshman year but he has no idea what happened to her. 

for some reason, phil reminds him of fiona. but he shakes his head at the thought. people can be similar without having some deeper meaning behind it. 

so instead of thinking about stupid things, dan plays mario kart until he gets sleepy. his mother trusts him to go to school on his own, which is why she doesn’t wake him up before she heads to work that morning. 

dan wishes that his mum woke him up, because he’s bummed about having to catch up all the work tomorrow, but at the same time he just needs a day to calm down and do nothing. he hasn’t really had that in a while, because high school is a bitch. 

he’s eating cereal while watching tv when the rolled up poster tube sticking out of his backpack catches his eye.

“shit!” dan yells. his parents would have a fit if they heard him right now, but dan’s alone and he’s freaking out now. 

_ dan forgot that he brought the project home with him yesterday, because his math teacher didn’t have a place for it. _

he checks the time.  _ 10:19 am. _

it takes him 15 minutes to get to school by walking. if he left right now, he’d get there with ten minutes until the lunch bell. 

dan slips on a jacket and makes a beeline for the door, walking at power speed with the project in his left hand. 

luckily, he makes it. his teacher is frowning at him for the tardiness, but dan doesn’t care because the project is turned in on time.

he takes a sigh of relief.

“dan!” a voice behind him says, startling dan.

it’s phil. surprisingly, he’s not mad. he looks like he’s really happy to see him.

_ “don’t get your hopes up, howell.” _ a voice in his head says to him.

“hey, phil!” dan exclaims, slightly out of breath.

“hi! glad you finally made it. didn’t really know what i would say if class had ended and i was stuck project-less.” phil pouts.

“i’m glad i didn’t wake up too late then.” dan says.

there’s a moment of silence between them before phil clears his throat and speaks up. 

“hey, so um, you don’t have your stuff with you so i’m assuming you’re going home, but you literally just got here so do you maybe wanna have lunch with me today? you can say no if you don’t want to, i’ll stop asking about it, sorry.” phil rambles.

dan finds it kinda charming.

“yeah sure, i’ll go to lunch with you.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you!
> 
> tumblr: fearoftryinq


End file.
